CHAPTER 9 — ELEANOR’S MESSAGE
The video spread across the world within minutes.
News anchors questioned Alexander’s involvement in his wife’s death.
Montrose Global’s stock dropped again.
Police arrived at headquarters before midnight.
Alexander voluntarily surrendered his phone, records, and passport.
“I did not harm your mother,” he told Isabella.
She wanted to believe him.
But belief had already cost her four years with Damian.
“I will follow the evidence,” she said.
Pain crossed her father’s face.
It was the answer he had taught her to give.
Detective Rowan reviewed the original recording.
The video had been cut.
Several seconds were missing from the end.
Someone had intentionally removed the name Eleanor spoke after saying “someone my husband trusts.”
Adrian possessed the complete recording.
He also possessed eighty-seven million dollars and enough confidential data to bargain for his freedom.
Then Vanessa revealed something important.
“Adrian was not the person Alexander trusted most back then.”
“Who was?”
“Evelyn’s husband. Richard Cross.”
Damian’s father.
Richard had served as Alexander’s personal attorney before his death fifteen years earlier.
He had drafted the original trust.
He had also handled Eleanor’s medical arrangements during her final illness.
The evidence began pointing away from Alexander.
And directly toward the Cross family.
Isabella requested Eleanor’s archived medical records.
They showed her mother had died after a sudden reaction to medication.
At the time, doctors ruled it an unavoidable complication.
But the prescription authorization carried Richard Cross’s signature.
Damian arrived at headquarters while Isabella was reviewing the file.
Security stopped him in the lobby.
He refused to leave until she came down.
Isabella found him standing beneath the Montrose emblem, looking smaller than he had inside the mansion.
“My accounts are frozen,” he said.
“Because they are under investigation.”
“My employees are terrified.”
“The employees will be protected. You will not.”
Damian lowered his voice.
“My mother lied to me.”
“You chose to believe every lie that made cruelty convenient.”
“She told me Montrose destroyed my father.”
“So you married me to steal my family’s company?”
“I married you because I was supposed to.”
The honesty was almost worse than another lie.
“Did you ever love me?”
Damian looked at her for a long time.
Then he stepped closer.
“I did not expect to.”
Her chest tightened.
“That is not an answer.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I loved you.”
“Then why did you strike me?”
His eyes filled with shame.
“Because you were leaving, and I realized I had lost control.”
Isabella stepped back.
“That is not love.”
Damian reached inside his coat.
Security moved forward.
He slowly removed a small memory card.
“This contains the missing end of your mother’s recording.”
“Where did you get it?”
“From Vanessa.”
“Why give it to me now?”
“Because my mother is going to kill Adrian before he can testify.”
Isabella took the card.
Before she could insert it into a device, Damian said one more thing.
“The name your mother spoke was not Richard Cross.”
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Isabella looked up.
“It was someone who is still sitting on the Montrose board.”
